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Introduction to Linux - A Hands on Guide

This guide was created as an overview of the Linux Operating System, geared toward new users as an exploration tour and getting started guide, with exercises at the end of each chapter.
For more advanced trainees it can be a desktop reference, and a collection of the base knowledge needed to proceed with system and network administration. This book contains many real life examples derived from the author's experience as a Linux system and network administrator, trainer and consultant. They hope these examples will help you to get a better understanding of the Linux system and that you feel encouraged to try out things on your own.

I have a puzzling question which doesn't appear to have been explained away
in any previous submissions.

I just installed Mandrake 9.2 on my Laptop. I previously connected to a
mail server on the company LAN via windows 98.
I have been able to set up all other networking processes such as using printers on the windows network, shared resources on windows network, web access via the proxy server. The problems start when I try to get my e-mail
working. Here's what happens.

I can connect to the mail server and read incoming e-mails without any problems (it uses NT Login for authorisation). Our system is based on SMTP and I have configured the mail_server, complete with IP and port 25, as well as my username and password.

I can send internal e-mails (ie. mails to anyone with the same @wherever address as me) but cannot send it any further afield. When I try, I get the following error message:

cjheeney@maths.tcd.ie
The recipient name is not recognized
The MTS-ID of the original message is: c=us;a= ;p=mater private
ho;l=MAIL_SERVER0311271011VC96ZGF1
MSEXCH:IMS:Mater Private Hospital.:MPH_DOM:MAIL_SERVER 0 (000C05A6)
Unknown Recipient

Not sure about the NT connection you have but I had a similar problem when I recently upgraded to RedHat 9 and was playing about with the settings trying to get SAMBA to work. I used KMail at the time and was able to receive but not send, my problem turned out that I had specified the port numbers the wrong way round.

Incoming port number should be 110

Outgoing should be 25

I got these mixed up and so no joy with email. Incidentally I have since reinstalled RH9 as after a lot of playing I had managed to screw it up quite well (!), and on this reinstall I opted for Ximian Evolution email which is a breeze to setup - no port numbers to specify and get wrong as it does it for you! Also, which may be of interest to you as it looks like you/your company are using MS Exchange, is that Ximian (now part of Novell) have released an MS Exchange plugin (http://www.ximian.com/products/connector) which may be of use.

One other thing you might want to try is to make sure you have SM-CLIENT running at startup as I had also managed to knock this out, I'm sorry I can't tell you how to put it back in, maybe someone else can, but as part of the reinstall this now reappears at bootup and my email is now working.

Thanks for the response.
I have Samba running when I start linneighborhood but it doesn't appear to be starting itself on boot (ie. it's not listed in the services). I will give it a try. That said, I can read e-mails which I receive, as they come in, so I would have thought I was OK in that respect.

I triple checked the port settings, even to the point of using nmap on the mail server.

Having just bought mandrake, I don't want to splash out on Ximian as well.
any more thoughts?

Oops, I'm sorry, I have re-read your first post and you do mention setting the correct port no there, so apologies for going over ground you have already covered!

I notice that in the error message you get is "The recipient name is not recognized" and "Unknown recipient" from Exchange - something again you may have already checked - but are you present in Exchanges Global Address List (GAL)? At a guess this sounds more like an Exchange problem than a Linux problem?

Many thanks for the further suggestions. I have not implemented samba server
as I can already see shared resources on another PC which means that I'm using Samba Client.
Besides, I can quite readily ping the mail_server and get a good response so that shouldn't be the problem.
I'm assuming that I am listed in the GAL list as I can send using Outlook under Windows.

I've spoken to the IT tech's here, but they're all Microsoft in the head and are *DAMN* reluctant to install anything on anything. Shortend is that the Ximian connector won't be going on anything in the meantime.

I have had a look at the links you suggested and can find nothing of use on them

Any ideas about using the sendmail system instead of the imap or am I wasting my time? At this stage, I'm getting close to the point where I'll have to give in to the pressure and resume work with Outlook!

I *have* to use outlook here as it is company policy, but if you are being allowed to use other OSes and email clients then stick with them. My gut feeling is that the problem doesn't lie with Linux, instead it is an exchange problem. For my sins I used to maintain an NT/Win 98 network and managed to get my Palm connected to the exchange 5.5 server we had. For this to work I had to enable IMAP support on my user on the exchange server itself. Is this possible for you to do? IMAP support should work so stick with that for the time being before trying anything else.

The real reason of course that the techies don't want to install anything, is that exchange has enough problems just keeping going itself and adding anything to it will just increase their work load and decrease the server uptime!

If I can totally migrate away from windows, then all the better. Let's just say that I'm sick of the continual crashing etc.

The companies policy on other OS's isn't all that clear as I just turned up one day with Linux on the Laptop (which I own) and that was that. They've not said anything but rumours have it that they'll be giving serious consideration to it in the near future when the NT support thing runs out in June next year. MS is simply too expensive to run and my system appears to be a damn sight easier to work with (again, running Mandrake 9.2).

You're dead right about the techies. They're good lads (and one lassie) but they've got their hands full with storage issues and other miscellaneous crap and don't want the responsibility of killing the exchange server if something goes wrong.

IMAP is available on the mail server and I can see the right port on the server when I nmap to it. (I actually shocked the hell out of one of the techies showing him that!)

I've pretty much exhausted all avenues, including sendmail (couldn't get it working) so for the time being I will run outlook under windows (kept a partition for dual booting). Not ideal but what can I do.

I've a new question to post regarding shared resources (folders and printers) on NT so if you have any suggestions on it I would be most pleased to hear them.

Ok Conor, I understand the pressures of getting your email sorted, so I can see why you have gone back to the Dark Side At least you have a dual boot partition! It is intriguing, if I understand you right, that "They" are considering a move away from MS to Linux, I wish you all the best and let's hope they go for it. Some points worth bearing in mind for the transition (if they ever go that route) -

1) I have been using Star Office 6 for several months now and it works like a dream (although it is initially slow at starting up) and it can read and write Office douments - Word, Excel and Powerpoint without any problems. In fact when I update documents sent to me I do so via Star Office and then save them in Word format and nobody has noticed! So you have instant compatibility there.

2) KMail can import Outlook folders directly into the users mail box in the Linux session, so nobody loses any email - a big plus as people can be a bit precious about their email!

4) Web access and email from Linux is a doddle - unless of course you are trying to connect via Exchange!!!

5) If you need to develop in house applications, both types of developer are catered for. You have all the standard Unix development tools (Perl, C, C++, etc) for the command line guys and you also have a very cool IDE for those of us used to working in a window environment - Kylix from Borland which has now matured nicely and is on version 3, which is Pascal (well Delphi really) on Linux.

6) Another no brainer - lots of stuff is free or nearly free!

Anyway back to your email problem. Let's have a recap. As I understand it:

"Consider having "outlook web access" installed on the exchange server. It
will let a linux client connect to a web version of outlook. Very nice." You may have already had this installed so the techies don't have a heart attack when you ask them to install something else!

Also part of the same thread:

"Exchange's default protocol is MAPI, which is really nice for network-based
Windows clients but not well-supported on other platforms (Outlook and
Eudora are the programs I've had success with). However, Exchange can also
be configured to allow POP3 access to the same mailboxes, with which any
client that speaks POP3 can be used. So if your Linux program allows you to
configure for two different POP3 servers, or two different
profiles/accounts/users, then you're in business as long as your admin can
enable POP3 access on the Exchange Server. (It's installed by default, but
not fully-enabled for non-MS clients without a little bit of tweaking.)"